Risk Assessment

VETERINARY PUBLIC HEALTH

Within Veterinary Public Health there are two different systems widely used for Risk Assessment.

1. The OIE International Animal Health Code system (Covello-Merkhofer model).
   Although used by the OIE in the context of trade issues, it is flexible and can be appied to various situations.
   This consists of the following steps.
   1. Release Assessment.-Here the probability of the hazard being present is estimated, e.g. Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD)is imported into a country in a food product.
   2. Exposure Assessment.-Here, given that the Hazard is present the risk that those susceptible are exposed to the hazard is estimated, e.g. given that FMD is present in the imported food product, what is the probability of animals susceptible being exposed to the virus.
   3. Consequence Assessment.-Here consideration of the severity of the consequences are estimated given the undesiable outcome has occurred, e.g. the consquence of FMD infection occuring in the importing country inthe given scenario.
   4. Risk Estimation.-Here an overall assessment of the size of the risk & its consequences is made.
      
      
2. The Codex Alimentarius Commission System (NAS-NRC model).
   This is used principly for microbiological food safety risk assessments.<It consists of the following steps.
   1. Hazard identification.
   2. Hazard characterisation.
   3. Exposure Assessment.
   4. Risk Characterisation.